New study: Only one-third of exchange sign-ups were previously uninsured

Today is March 31, 2014: in theory, the last day you can
sign up for coverage under the subsidized Obamacare insurance exchanges.
If you’ve been a regular reader of this space, you know that the
numbers routinely paraded by the Obama administration regarding
Obamacare website sign-ups don’t tell us much about the actual number of
uninsured individuals who have gained coverage. A new study from the RAND Corporation indicates that only one-third of exchange sign-ups were previously uninsured.
The RAND study hasn’t yet been published, but its contents were made available to Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times.
RAND also estimates that 9 million individuals have purchased health
plans directly from insurers, outside of the exchanges, but that “the
vast majority of these people were previously insured.”
The RAND report appears to corroborate the work of other surveys. Earlier this month,McKinsey reported that 27 percent of those signing up for coverage on the individual market were previously uninsured.Around 1/4 of exchange enrollees were previously uninsured
One important finding of the McKinsey survey was that the proportion
of those who had formally enrolled in coverage, by paying their first
month’s premium, was considerably lower among the previously uninsured,
relative to the previously insured. 86 percent of those who were
previously insured who had “selected a marketplace plan” on the
exchanges had paid, whereas only 53 percent of the previously uninsured
had.Keep on reading…